A special National Investigation Agency court on Tuesday framed charges against Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi and three of his associates under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and sections of the Indian Penal Code for their alleged role in violence during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the state in December 2019, reported PTI.
Judge SK Sharma charged Gogoi, who is the MLA from Sibsagar, with conspiracy under the anti-terrorism law.
Under the criminal law, Gogoi has been charged with conspiracy, promoting enmity between different communities and making imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration, his lawyer Santanu Borthakur confirmed.
Charges were also brought against Dhaijya Konwar, Bittu Sonowal and Manash Konwar under provisions of the anti-terrorism law and the Indian Penal Code.
The court, however, rejected the inclusion of Section 39 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, which prescribes the punishment for extending support to terrorist organisations. The court also rejected the inclusion of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, which deals with sedition.
Gogoi said he would challenge the framing of charges in the Gauhati High Court and alleged that the Union government was attempting to keep him and his associates behind bars.
“This again proves that we are with the people and this government wants us to be kept inside the jail,” he told PTI. “The fight against a fascist and communal government is a very troublesome and expensive affair.”
“The state will not spare anyone unless there is compromise and surrender,” Gogoi said in a post on X on Tuesday. “Justice here is just a dictionary word.”
The special court had discharged Gogoi and his three associates from the anti-terrorism case in 2021, but the Gauhati High Court reversed the order in February 2023 at the behest of the National Investigation Agency.
On April 18, 2023, the Supreme Court granted bail to the Sibsagar MLA but upheld the High Court order.
The case against Gogoi
On December 12, 2019, Gogoi was placed under preventive custody after his involvement in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The National Investigation Agency had said that Gogoi was booked for “waging a war against the nation”, conspiracy and rioting.
Three days after his arrest, the Gogoi was charged under the stringent anti-terrorism law.
The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a fast track to Indian citizenship for refugees from six minority religious communities, except Muslims, from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the condition that they have lived in India for six years and entered the country before December 31, 2014. The rules of the Act were notified in March.
The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims, sparking massive protests across the country. Indian Muslims fear that the law could be used, along with the nationwide National Register of Citizens, to harass and disenfranchise them.
The National Register of Citizens is a proposed exercise to identify undocumented immigrants.
While protests against the Act in the rest of India revolved around the law’s alleged anti-Muslim bias, ethnic groups in Assam and the rest of the North East fear they will be physically and culturally swamped by migrants from Bangladesh.
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